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Monday, October 5, 2015

Vatican City, 5 October 2015 (VIS) –
This morning at 9 a.m. the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops dedicated to “The vocation and mission of the
family in the Church and the contemporary world” commenced in the
Vatican. In the presence of the Holy Father, the first to speak was
the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, who presented
to the Synod Fathers a brief meditation summarising the intentions
and spirit of the Assembly.

“Brothers, who come from the four
corners of the world summoned by Peter, moved by the love of Jesus
and the Mother Church”, he began. “St. Paul invites us, indeed,
to joy. The joy of the gospel that Pope Francisco tirelessly
proclaims worldwide. But as he himself has told us, the greatest risk
in the world today, with its multiple and overwhelming consumption,
is an individualistic sorrow that springs from the comfortable and
covetous heart, the feeble search for superficial pleasures, the
isolated consciousness. Sometimes it saddens us to hear how the world
has focused on this Synod as if we came together as two opposing
sides to defend entrenched positions. Therefore, with Jesus Christ
joy is always born and reborn'”.

“But let us take heart”, he
continued. “We are not a Church in danger of extinction or indeed
far less. Neither is the family, although it is threatened and
opposed. Nor do we come to mourn or lament the difficulties. Psalm 26
tells us: 'Be brave, take heart. Hope in the Lord'. Let us all have
one mind: let us all seek the unanimity that comes from dialogue, not
ideas defended at all costs. St. Paul reminds us to have same
sentiments as Christ. Live in peace: as Evangelii Gaudium tells us,
dialogue contributes to peace, because the Church proclaims the
'Gospel of peace'. To proclaim Jesus Christ, Who is peace in person,
the Mother Church encourages us to be instruments of peace and
credible witnesses of a reconciled life. It is time to know how to
plan a culture that favours dialogue and the pursuit of consensus and
agreements as a form of encounter. We are not in need of a project of
few and for the few, or an enlightened or minority that appropriates
a collective sentiment”.

“Therefore, we wish to begin the
Synod in peace”, he concluded. “It is not the peace of the world,
made of compromises and commitments that frequently are not
fulfilled. It is the peace of Christ, peace with ourselves. And the
conclusion is clear: 'The God of love and peace will be with you'. So
we can say, 'Stay with us, Lord', not because the day is ending, but
rather because it is beginning. A new day for the families of the
world, believers or not, families tired of the uncertainties and
doubts sown by various ideologies such as deconstruction, cultural
and social contradictions, fragility and loneliness. Abide with us
Lord, so that this Synod indicate a path of joy and hope for all
families”.

The Holy Father than introduced the
work of the first day, explaining that “the Synod is not a
convention or a locutory; it is not a parliament or a senate, where
an accord is sought. The Synod, instead, is an ecclesial expression,
that is, the Church who walks together to read reality with the eyes
of faith, and which therefore does not represent a museum to be
looked at or even to be protected, but is rather a living source from
which the Church slakes her thirst so as to slake the thirst and
enlighten the deposit of life”.

The Synod is, furthermore, “a
protected space where the Church can experience the action of the
Holy Spirit. In the Synod the Spirit speaks through the language of
all those who let themselves be guided by God, Who always surprises
us, by God Who shows to the smallest among us what He hides from the
wise and the intelligent, by God Who created the law and the Sabbath
for man and not vice versa, by God Who leaves his ninety-nine sheep
to seek the one lost sheep, by God Who is always greater than our
logic and our calculations. However, let us remember that the Synod
may be a space for the action of the Holy Spirit only if we
participants clothe ourselves in apostolic courage, evangelical
humility and trustful prayer”.

“Apostolic courage so that we do not
let ourselves be afraid neither before the seductions of the world,
that tend to extinguish in the heart of men the light of the truth,
substituting it will small temporary lights, neither before the
hardening of some hearts that, in spite of good intentions, distance
people from God”, underlined the Pope.

“Evangelical humility so that we
empty ourselves of our own conventions and prejudices in order to
listen to our brother Bishops and to fill ourselves with God.
Humility that leads us not to point a finger at others to judge them,
but rather to offer them a hand to help them up without ever feeling
superior to them”.

“Trustful prayer is the action of the
heart when it opens to God, when it calms our mood so we hear the
gentle voice of God that speaks in the silence. Without listening to
God, all of our words will remain words alone, that nether satisfy
nor serve. Without allowing ourselves to be guided by the Holy
Spirit, all our decisions will be mere decorations that instead of
exalting the Gospel, cover or conceal it”.

“Dear brothers”, concluded Francis,
“as I said, the Synod is not a parliament where, in order to reach
a consensus or a common accord we resort to negotiation, pacts or
compromise; the only method of the Synod is to open itself to the
Holy Spirit with apostolic courage, with evangelical courage and with
trustful prayer so that He may guide us, enlighten us and let us put
before our eyes not our own personal views, but our faith in God,
fidelity to the Magisterium, the good of the Church and the salus
animarum”.

The president delegate, the cardinal
archbishop of Paris Andre Vingt-Trois, then commented that the Pope's
decision to convoke two sessions of the Synod of Bishops on the
mission of the family in the contemporary world has been fruitful and
that the episcopate has borne witness to this. The particular
Churches have made efforts to contribute to the work by answering to
the questionnaire that informed the Instrumentum Laboris. “Our
Synod is led by the Church”. The cardinal also mentioned the Motu
Proprio Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, with which the Holy Father has
reformed the canonical procedures regarding the declaration of
nullity of marriage, which offers valuable direction on the spirit
according to which this phase of the Synod should unfold. “Without
casting doubt on the sacramental tradition of our Church, nor its
doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage, you invite us to share
our pastoral experiences and to open the paths of mercy by which the
Lord calls all those who wish to and are able to enter into a space
for conversion with a view to forgiveness”.

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, general
secretary of the Synod, explained the working methods of the Synod of
Bishops in this extraordinary assembly, including the time available
for interventions by the Synod Fathers and the greater space accorded
to the Circuli Minori to foster more intense debate, as well as the
importance conceded to the contributions by couples and the
relationships between the Synod and the media.

Finally, the general rapporteur, the
cardinal archbishop of Ezstergom-Budapest, Peter Erdo, illustrated
the first part of the Instrumentum Laboris, which begins by listening
to the challenges to the family, placing them in the contemporary
socio-cultural context, and its anthropological change, characterised
by a “flight from institutions” leading to institutional
instability and the predominance of individualism and subjectivism.
He then spoke about the discernment of the family vocation, the
divine pedagogy of the family and indissolubility as a gift and a
task, mentioning the family in the Magisterium of the Church and its
missionary dimension, as well as “wounded” families, placing them
in the context of mercy and truth. The cardinal touched upon the
theme of the evangelising dimension of the family and ecclesial
accompaniment of family units, as well as the issue of reproductive
responsibility and the challenges of education.

“Listening to the Word of God, our
response must show the sincere and fraternal attention to the needs
of our contemporaries, to transmit to them the liberating truth and
to be witnesses of our greatest mercy. To face today's challenges to
the family. The Church must convert and become more alive, more
personal, and more community-based, also at the levels of the parish
and the small community. It would appear that a community reawakening
is already in process in many areas. So that it might be more general
and increasingly profound, we ask that the light of the Holy Spirit
show us also the concrete steps we need to take. In this way, the
vocation and the mission of the family in the Church and the
contemporary world, the theme of this Synod, would appear in the
serene and concrete light that enables us to grow in hope and trust
in God's mercy; in that mercy to which Pope Francis wished to
dedicate an extraordinary Jubilee. Let us thank the Holy Father for
this decision of hope and entrust our work to the Holy Family of
Nazareth”.

Vatican City, 4 October 2015 (VIS) –
Today the Holy Father presided at the opening Mass of the Synod of
Bishops on “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church
and the contemporary world”. In his homily, the bishop of Rome
commented on the Biblical texts of this 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time,
noting that they focus on “three themes: solitude, love between man
and woman, and the family”.

Regarding solitude, he spoke of Adam's
dominion over all the other creatures in the Garden of Eden, “a
sign of his dominion, his clear and undisputed power”. Nonetheless,
“he felt alone, because 'there was not found a helper fit for
him'”. Loneliness, said the Pope, “is experienced by countless
men and women in our own day. I think of the elderly, abandoned even
by their loved ones and children; widows and widowers; the many men
and women left by their spouses; all those who feel alone,
misunderstood and unheard; migrants and refugees fleeing from war and
persecution; and those many young people who are victims of the
culture of consumerism, the culture of waste, the throwaway culture”.

“Today we experience the paradox of a
globalised world filled with luxurious mansions and skyscrapers, but
a lessening of the warmth of homes and families; many ambitious plans
and projects, but little time to enjoy them... Our experience today
is, in some way, like that of Adam: so much power and at the same
time so much loneliness and vulnerability. The image of this is the
family. People are less and less serious about building a solid and
fruitful relationship of love: in sickness and in health, for better
and for worse, in good times and in bad. Love which is lasting,
faithful, conscientious, stable and fruitful is increasingly looked
down upon, viewed as a quaint relic of the past”.

In the first reading we hear that God
was pained by Adam’s loneliness, and resolved to make him a helper
fit for him. “These words show that nothing makes man’s heart as
happy as another heart like his own, a heart which loves him and
takes away his sense of being alone. These words also show that God
did not create us to live in sorrow or to be alone. He made men and
women for happiness, to share their journey with someone who
complements them, to live the wondrous experience of love: to love
and to be loved, and to see their love bear fruit in children, as
today’s Psalm says. This is God’s dream for His beloved creation:
to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman,
rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of
self”.

“What therefore God has joined
together, let not man put asunder”, said the Pope, turning to the
theme of the family. “This is an exhortation to believers to
overcome every form of individualism and legalism which conceals a
narrow self-centredness and a fear of accepting the true meaning of
the couple and of human sexuality in God’s plan. Indeed, only in
the light of the folly of the gratuitousness of Jesus’ paschal love
will the folly of the gratuitousness of an exclusive and life-long
conjugal love make sense”.

“For God, marriage is not some
adolescent utopia, but a dream without which his creatures will be
doomed to solitude”, he continued. “Indeed, being afraid to
accept this plan paralyses the human heart. Paradoxically, people
today – who often ridicule this plan – continue to be attracted
and fascinated by every authentic love, by every steadfast love, by
every fruitful love, by every faithful and enduring love. We see
people chase after fleeting loves while dreaming of true love; they
chase after carnal pleasures but desire total self-giving”.

“In this extremely difficult social
and marital context, the Church is called to carry out her mission in
fidelity, truth and love. To carry out her mission in fidelity to
her Master as a voice crying out in the desert, in defending faithful
love and encouraging the many families which live married life as an
experience which reveals of God’s love; in defending the sacredness
of life, of every life; in defending the unity and indissolubility of
the conjugal bond as a sign of God’s grace and of the human
person’s ability to love seriously”.

“To carry out her mission in truth,
which is not changed by passing fads or popular opinions. The truth
which protects individuals and humanity as a whole from the
temptation of self-centredness and from turning fruitful love into
sterile selfishness, faithful union into temporary bonds. … To
carry out her mission in charity, not pointing a finger in judgement
of others, but – faithful to her nature as a mother – conscious
of her duty to seek out and care for hurting couples with the balm of
acceptance and mercy; to be a 'field hospital' with doors wide open
to whoever knocks in search of help and support”.

Francis recalled St. John Paul II who
said: “Error and evil must always be condemned and opposed; but the
man who falls or who errs must be understood and loved”, and added
“The Church must search out these persons, welcome and accompany
them, for a Church with closed doors betrays herself and her mission,
and, instead of being a bridge, becomes a roadblock: 'For He who
sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is
why He is not ashamed to call them brethren'”.

“In this spirit”, he concluded, “we
ask the Lord to accompany us during the Synod and to guide His
Church, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St.
Joseph, her most chaste spouse”.

Vatican City, September 2015 (VIS) –
In today's Sunday Angelus the Pope again asked the faithful gathered
in St. Peter's Square for prayers for the Synod on the Family
inaugurated yesterday with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

“The Synod Fathers, from all over the
world and gathered around St. Peter's Successor will reflect during
these three weeks on the vocation and the mission of the Church in
the Church and in society, for a careful spiritual and pastoral
discernment. We will keep our gaze fixed on Jesus in order to find,
on the basis of His teaching of truth and mercy, the most appropriate
routes for adequate commitment on the part of the Church, with
families and for families, so that the Creator's original plan for
man and woman may be implemented and may operate in all its beauty
and strength in today's world”.

In this sense, the reading of the Book
of Genesis on complementarity and reciprocity between the man and
woman who unite and become one flesh, “that is, one life, one
existence”, and in this way “transmit their life to new human
beings: they become parents. They participate in the creative power
of God Himself. But”, he warned, “be careful! God is love, and
one participates in His work when one loves with and like Him. …
And this is also the love that is given to spouses in the Sacrament
of marriage. It is the love that nurtures their relationship, through
joy and suffering, in moments of serenity and difficulty. It is the
love that awakens the desire to create children, to wait for them,
welcome them, raise them and educate them. It is the same love that,
in today's Gospel, Jesus reveals to the children: 'Let the children
come to me, do not prevent them'.

“Today we ask the Lord that all
parents and educators in the world, as in society as a whole, are
made instruments of that acceptance and love with which Jesus
embraces the little ones. He looks into their hearts with the
tenderness and care of a father and, at the same time, a mother. I
think of so many children that are hungry, abandoned, exploited,
forced into the war, refused. It is painful to see images of children
that are unhappy, looking lost, fleeing from poverty and conflicts.
They are knocking on our doors and our hearts begging for help. May
the Lord help us not to be a 'fortress-society,' but rather a
'family-society' which welcomes – with the proper rules -but always
welcomes with love”.

The Pope concluded by invoking the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit for the Synod Fathers and the
intercession of the Virgin Mary, uniting with those who today,
Italian Shrine of Pompeii, pray the traditional supplication to the
Our Lady of the Rosary.

Following the Angelus, Francis
mentioned the beatification yesterday in Santander, Spain, of Pio
Heredia and seventeen companions of the Cistercian Order of the
Strict Observance of St. Bernard, killed in hatred of the faith
during the Spanish civil war and the religious persecution of the
1930s. “Let us praise the Lord for their courageous witness, and
with their intercession, let us beg that He liberate the world from
the scourge of war”.

He prayed for the victims of a
landslide that swept away an entire village in Guatemala, and of the
flood in the Cote d'Azur in France, and urged concrete acts of
solidarity in their support. He also affectionately greeted Italian
pilgrims on the feast day of the their patron, St. Francis of Assisi.

Vatican City, 3 October 2015 (VIS) -
“When life proves difficult and demanding, we can be tempted to
step back, turn away and withdraw, perhaps even in the name of
prudence and realism, and thus flee the responsibility of doing our
part as best we can”, said the Holy Father during his inauguration
of the prayer vigil for the Synod of Bishops, held during the night
of Saturday 3 October. Organised by the Italian Episcopal Conference,
large numbers of faithful and pilgrims participated in St. Peter's
Square.

The Pope spoke about the human fear
that the prophet Elijah experienced and how he got up and fled for
his life, and recalled that “just a year ago, in this same Square,
we invoked the Holy Spirit and asked that - in discussing the theme
of the family - the Synod Fathers might listen attentively to one
another, with their gaze fixed on Jesus, the definitive Word of the
Father and the criterion by which everything is to be measured. This
evening, our prayer cannot be otherwise. For as Patriarch Athenagoras
Metropolitan Ignatius IV Hazim reminded us, without the Holy Spirit
God is far off, Christ remains in the past, the Church becomes a mere
organisation, authority becomes domination, mission becomes
propaganda, worship becomes mystique, Christian life the morality of
slaves”.

“Let us pray that the Synod which
opens tomorrow will show how the experience of marriage and family is
rich and humanly fulfilling”, he continued. “May the Synod
acknowledge, esteem, and proclaim all that is beautiful, good and
holy about that experience. May it embrace situations of
vulnerability and hardship: war, illness, grief, wounded
relationships and brokenness, which create distress, resentment and
separation. May it remind these families, and every family, that the
Gospel is always 'good news' which once again enables us to start
over. From the treasury of the Church’s living tradition may the
Fathers draw words of comfort and hope for families called in our own
day to build the future of the ecclesial community and the city of
man”.

The Pope emphasised that “every
family is always a light, however faint, amid the darkness of this
world. Jesus’ own human experience took shape in the heart of a
family, where he lived for thirty years. His family was like any
number of others, living in an obscure village on the outskirts of
the Empire”.

He gave the example of Charles de
Foucauld who “came to understand that we do not grow in the love of
God by avoiding the entanglement of human relations. For in loving
others, we learn to love God, in stooping down to help our neighbour,
we are lifted up to God. Through his fraternal closeness and his
solidarity with the poor and the abandoned, he came to understand
that it is they who evangelise us, they who help us to grow in
humanity”.

The Holy Father encouraged the faithful
to enter into the mystery of the family in order to be able to
understand it. “The family is a place where evangelical holiness is
lived out in the most ordinary conditions. There we are formed by the
memory of past generations and we put down roots which enable us to
go far. The family is a place of discernment, where we learn to
recognise God’s plan for our lives and to embrace it with trust. It
is a place of gratuitousness. of discreet fraternal presence and
solidarity, a place where we learn to step out of ourselves and
accept others, to forgive and to be feel forgiven”.

“Let us set out once more from
Nazareth for a Synod which, more than speaking about the family, can
learn from the family, readily acknowledging its dignity, its
strength and its value, despite all its problems and difficulties. In
the 'Galilee of the nations' of our own time, we will rediscover the
richness and strength of a Church which is a mother, ever capable of
giving and nourishing life, accompanying it with devotion,
tenderness, and moral strength. For unless we can unite compassion
with justice, we will end up being needlessly severe and deeply
unjust”.

“A Church which is family is also
able to show the closeness and love of a father ... a Church of
children who see themselves as brothers and sisters, will never end
up considering anyone simply as a burden, a problem, an expense, a
concern or a risk. Other persons are essentially a gift, and always
remain so, even when they walk different paths. The Church is an open
house, far from outward pomp, hospitable in the simplicity of her
members. … This Church can indeed light up the darkness felt by so
many men and women. She can credibly point them towards the goal and
walk at their side, precisely because she herself first experienced
what it is to be endlessly reborn in the merciful heart of the
Father”, Francis concluded.

Vatican City, 3 October 2015 (VIS) –
This morning in the Paul VI Hall Pope Francis received in audience
seven thousand volunteers from the Food Bank Foundation, established
25 years ago by the Italian businessman Danilo Fossati and Don
Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, to combat food waste,
recovering and distributing food among the poor and families in need.

In his address to them, Francis
underlined that hunger has now assumed the dimensions of a true
scandal that threatens the life and dignity of many people: men and
women, children and the elderly. “Every day we must face this
injustice: in a world rich in food resources, thanks also to enormous
technological progress, there are too many people who do not have the
essentials for survival; and this is true not only of poor countries,
but increasingly so in rich and developed societies. The situation is
aggravated by the increase in migratory flows, which bring thousands
of refugees to Europe, fleeing their countries and in need of
everything. In the face of such an immeasurable problem, Jesus' words
resonate: 'For I was hungry and you gave me food'. We see in the
Gospel that the Lord, when He realises that the crowd that has come
to listen to Him is hungry, does not ignore the problem, nor does He
give a good speech on the fight against poverty; instead He performs
a gesture that leaves everyone astonished. He takes the little that
the disciples have brought with them, He blesses it, and He
multiplies the bread and fishes, so that in the end 'they took up
twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over'”.

“We cannot perform a miracle as Jesus
did; however we can do something when faced wit the emergency of
hunger, something useful, that also has the power of a miracle. First
of all we can educate ourselves in humanity, in recognising the
humanity present in every person, in need of everything. This is
perhaps what Danilo Fossati, entrepreneur in the food sector and
founder of the Food Bank, was thinking of when he confided to Don
Giussani his unease at seeing the destruction of products that could
still be consumed, when so many people in Italy suffered from
hunger”.

The bishop of Rome remarked that the
Foundation has its roots in the heart of those two men who were not
indifferent to the cry of the poor and “understood that something
needed to change in the mentality of the people, that the walls of
individualism and selfishness had to be broken down. … Jesus
Himself invites us to make space in our heart for the urgency of
feeding the hungry, and the Church has made it one of the works of
corporal mercy”.

Finally, commenting that the Food Bank
volunteers encounter hundreds of people every day, the Pope reminded
them of the need to remember that they are “people and not numbers,
each one with his or her burden that at times seems impossible to
bear. Always keeping this in mind, you will be able to look them in
the eye, to hold their hand, to descry the flesh of Christ in them
and to help them regain their dignity and get back on their feet. I
encourage you to be brothers and friends to the poor; to let them
feel that they are important in God's eyes”.

Vatican City, 3 October 2015 (VIS) –
Following the festivity of St. Michael Archangel, patron of the
Vatican City State Gendarmerie Corps, Pope Francis celebrated Mass
this morning in the Governorate Chapel, attended by the members of
the Corps.

The Holy Father spoke in his homily
about St. Michael's battle against Satan, affirming that “there is
a war between good and evil, in which we must choose what we want,
good or evil. But … the methods of war adopted by these two enemies
are totally opposed to one another. In the initial prayer … we ask
for the grace to be defended by Archangel Michael against the
temptations of the devil, and this is one of the devil's methods:
temptation”.

He then explained “the three steps of
the method of the ancient serpent, the devil. First, having things:
in this case bread, wealth, the wealth that gradually leads to
corruption, and this corruption is not a tale, it is everywhere. Many
people are willing to sell their soul for a pittance, they sell their
happiness, their life, everything. It is the first step: money and
wealth. Then, when you have it you feel important, which leads to the
second step: vanity. What the devil said to Jesus: Let's go to the
terrace, 'cast Yourself down from here' – make a great spectacle!
Living for vanity. And the third step is power, pride and arrogance:
'to you I will give all this authority', you will be in command”.

“This also happens to us, in small
things, always, in small things: too attached to wealth, we like it
when we are praised, like the peacock. And many people become
ridiculous. Vanity makes us become ridiculous. Or, in the end, when
you have power you feel as if you are God, and this is the great
sin”.

“You who have a difficult job, in
which there are always conflicts and you have to put in things in
their place, often enabling crime to be avoided. Pray to the Lord
that, by the intercession of St. Michael Archangel, He will defend
you from any temptation of corruption for money, for wealth, for
vanity or arrogance. The humbler you are, like Jesus, the humbler
your service will be and the more fruitful and useful it will be for
all of us”.

Vatican City, 3 October 2015 (VIS) –
The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi,
S.J., today made the following statement:

“With regard to the declarations and
interview given by Msgr. Krzystof Charamsa it should be observed
that, notwithstanding the respect due to the events and personal
situations, and reflections on the issue, the decision to make such a
pointed statement on the eve of the opening of the Synod appears very
serious and irresponsible, since it aims to subject the Synod
assembly to undue media pressure. Msgr. Charamsa will certainly be
unable to continue to carry out his previous work in the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical universities, while
the other aspects of his situation shall remain the competence of his
diocesan Ordinary”.

- Archbishop Salvatore Ligorio of
Matera-Irsina, Italy, as metropolitan archbishop of
Potenza-Muro-Lucano-Marsico Nuovo (area 1,634, population 154,600,
Catholics 152,600, priests 113, permanent deacons 23, religious 124),
Italy. He succeeds Archbishop Agostino Superbo, whose resignation
from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon reaching the age
limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

- Msgr. Andrea Migliavacca as bishop of
San Miniato (area 691, population 176,794, Catholics 161,000, priests
79, permanent deacons 10, religious 122), Italy. The bishop-elect was
born in Pavia, Italy in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1992. He
holds a degree in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University
and has served in a number of pastoral and administrative roles in
Pavia, including notary of the diocesan ecclesiastical tribunal,
adjunct judicial vicar, head of youth pastoral, Catholic Action
assistant for youth, parish administrator of the San Genesio ed
Uniti. He is currently vice chancellor and judge of the Lombard
Regional Ecclesiastical Tribunal, rector of the diocesan seminary and
head of vocations, judicial vicar and canon of the Cathedral Chapter.